-- Larger projects -- some 750,000 square feet and up -- are being planned. -- Many of the proposed retail centers are targeted for mixed-use developments that will include office and hotel space and residential units.

For the past few years, most activity in the metropolitan Orlando market was confined to construction of neighborhood shopping centers ranging from 80,000 to 150,000 square feet in overlooked pockets where residential growth created demand.

Many other developers were concentrating on outlying growth markets, from Ocala in the north to Daytona Beach and Melbourne on the east coast.

Today in the Orlando market, a burst of shopping-center construction and planning is under way throughout the area, with market areas being overlapped. Paul E. Kestner, retail specialist with Coldwell Banker, said 7.9 percent of the 11.95 million square feet of space (excluding the jumbo regional malls) in the tri-county Orlando market was vacant at the end of March. In Seminole County, a surge in new space had boosted the vacancy rate from 10 percent in December to 11 percent at the end of March. Orange County had a 6.1 percent vacancy rate, down from 6.3 percent in December, while Osceola County had a 7.9 percent vacancy rate, down from 8.2 percent.

With land considerably cheaper than in metropolitan Orlando, both Volusia and Brevard counties are experiencing a surge in shopping center development. Occupancy levels are in the low 90s. In Brevard County, development activity has been especially strong in the Melbourne area.

Krestner said shopping center land is selling from as low as $3.50 a square foot in outlying sections of the metropolitan area to $12 a square foot for prime, close-in locations. That is anywhere from about $150,000 an acre to more than $520,000 an acre.

Jay Rohr of Ferncreek Properties, and Orlando commercial real estate office, said leasing rates range from $9 to $16 a square foot annually in strip centers with the typical neighborhood center commanding rates in the $11- to $12-a-square-foot range. Space downtown goes for from $12 to $22 a square foot with the malls and specialty centers getting anywhere from $12 to $30 a square foot, he said.

Although land prices have been escalating, resale prices have slipped slightly in recent months. Rohr attributed that to uncertainty over what direction tax reform legislation will take.

He said Florida Mall, under construction in the southeast quadrant of the U.S. Highway 17-92-441/Sand Lake Road intersection, will overlap the market area of Fashion Square and Colonial Plaza malls. He said he anticipates some softening of business there until growth offsets that overlap.

The 1.3 million-square-foot Florida Mall is expected to open next spring.

Meanwhile, Prudential Insurance Co. of America and Orlando-based Major Realty Corp. are proceeding with plans for a 1.1 million-square-foot Galleria Orlando shopping mall at Florida Center, a few miles southwest of Florida Mall.

The mall is part of a large, mixed-use development that includes more than 1,000 hotel rooms and 2 million square feet of office space.

Ed McDade, who represents Prudential and Major in the joint venture, said site work is to start this fall with construction likely to begin next year, he said.

Rohr, of Ferncreek Properties, estimated another 900,000 square feet of space in tourist-oriented shopping centers is under construction or planned south of Orlando.

Susan Stewart of Property Marketing Services said three centers with more than 300,000 square feet are proposed within a mile of each other in the State Road 436/Pershing Road area southeast of Orlando.

Fred Hohnadel, of Community Shopping Centers, is developing one of the three State Road 436/Pershing Road area plazas.

He concedes the centers -- one of which is proposed directly across S.R. 436 from Hohnadel's plaza, while another is at Hoffner Road to the south -- will fight for the same customers.

The next strong opportunities likely will be in east Orange and Seminole counties as residential development in those areas accelerates, Hohnadel said. For instance, the company is doing a a deal at DeBary in Volusia County with land costs about $1.50 a square foot. The S.R. 436/Pershing Road deal ran about $4.50 a square foot for the site, he said.

John Wickert, director of leasing for Hardy-Leib Development, said the market is competitive, but very strong.